Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 10, 2026

A Multiple Integrated Social Stress Model for Psychiatric Disorders in Female C57BL/6J Mice
Published on: July 15, 2025
[How do Psychiatric Hospitals in Austria Realise an Open Door Policy?]
Tilman Steinert1, Joachim Scharfetter2
1Zentrum für Psychiatrie Südwürttemberg, Weissenau, Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie I der Universität Ulm, Ravensburg.
Objective:
Many psychiatric hospitals in Austria have an open door policy. We aimed to compare staffing levels, use of coercive measures, and beds per inhabitants between an Austrian and a German psychiatric hospital with partly locked doors.
Methods:
Analysis of frequency of seclusion and restraint, aggressive incidents, police searches, availability of beds, and staffing levels in standardized counts.
Results:
German wards were open 65 % of daytime, Austrian wards 100 %. In the German region, considerable part of hospital beds were located in day clinics and psychosomatic clinics. The percentage of all admissions subjected to coercion was considerably lower in Germany, but this did not apply to involuntary admissions. Police searches were comparable in frequency. Staffing levels of physicians and psychologists were similar, in Austria considerably more nurses were available.
Conclusion:
The results do not provide evidence that the open door policy in Austrian psychiatry is realized by use of other coercive measures. Possibly more nursing staff is important to open doors.
Related Concept Videos
Hospitals-II
Nurses that work in...
Hospitals-I
Social Traps
Obedience
Persuasion Strategies
Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping

